News

 The city’s first variance request under its alcohol zoning rules resulted in no action being taken by the Clarendon Board of Aldermen last Tuesday, August 26.

Patricia Krichhoff, representing Grumpy’s Pizza, addressed the board in public comments and said they have received no negative comments from the public since posting their notice of intent to apply for an alcohol permit back in May.

Grumpy’s Pizza hopes to open in October in the former Howell’s Chili House building next to the Donley County VFW Post on the southeast corner of US 287 and Faker Street. However, rules adopted by the city earlier this year prohibit the sale of alcohol within 300 feet of a church. Grumpy’s, the city says, is 8.5 feet too close to the Agapé Church located on the southwest corner of the same intersection, when the distance from front door to front door is measured by state guidelines.

Kirchhoff said Grumpy’s would offer pizza and Italian fare, and she said their calculations show the sale of beer and wine at the restaurant would put the establishment in the black.

Mayor Pro-tem Sandy Skelton, presiding in the absence of Mayor Larry Hicks, said that Grumpy’s is a business; and while the city board is pro-business, they have not heard directly from members of the Agapé Church regarding the restaurant’s request.

Alderman Doug Kidd said he had talked to Pastor Anthony Knowles who said he would not come to a meeting and that the church was happy with the rules that had been adopted. Alderman Beverly Burrow also said she had talked to the pastor who told her while the church welcomes the business as a neighbor it did not care for alcohol and said it was up to the city to make the rules. Burrow also said she did not want to weaken the alcohol zone.

“If we start inching back, where do we stop?” Burrow asked.

Alderman John Lockhart said the city needed to consider what opportunities are available for businesses.

“We have to look at where land is available for new businesses,” Lockhard said. “We have a standard that will continue to landlock us.”

The board agreed to take more time to study the issue and will revisit it during their regular meeting next week.

In other city business, the board appointed Alderman Kidd to fill an unexpired term on the board of the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation, approved a cooperative agreement with the Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas to digitize and make historic city records available online, and approved having Foster & Lambert conduct the audit of fiscal year 2014 books.

Aldermen also approved paying off the city’s Asphalt Zipper with surplus m onies in the interest and sinking fund and applied the remainder of that surplus to the principal of the city’s tax notes.

Skelton updated the board on efforts to clean up tires at two local businesses. Citations against the firms were voided after it was discovered the city also had a stockpile of old tires, and efforts are now underway to pursue a grant that could pay for a trailer where tires could be collected and hauled off through the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission.

 

Well, here we go again. It’s September, which means that school has started. Everyone is back in class, including the students at Clarendon College. I’m glad that school is back in session. The world seems to be a better place when our young people are in school, excitedly expanding the vistas of their minds. At least, that’s how I visualize how things ought to be. In reality, they may also be expanding other, less sterling, aspects of their minds. However, a well-balanced, if somewhat mischievous mind is much better than an ignorant, rigid mind.

Once again, Clarendon is inundated with hundreds of college students, pockets flush with cash, or, at the very least, mom and dad’s credit cards. Clarendon College remains the primary economic engine that drives prosperity in Donley County and the surrounding area. It is very difficult to underestimate the importance of Clarendon College to our commonweal. In short, Clarendon College contributes millions of dollars into our economy. Unless the lake fills up soon, it will be difficult to for any other economic engine to drive more prosperity to our area. Let’s not forget that.

Our new college president, Dr. Robert Riza, has now had a few months to get his exciting new programs up and running. He has consistently been a visible and contributing part of our community, and I’m grateful that he has chosen to be an active participant in our town. The bus is departing into the future and we all need to be aboard.

We are lucky that Dr. Riza and his bride made the choice to join our community, and we should do all we can to support them, along with his vital mission at Clarendon College. Dr. Riza’s bride, Cobette, it should be noted, has also chosen to become an active part of our community. She teaches third grade at Clarendon Elementary School. We are blessed to have them both.

As part of the return to school team-building festivities, yesterday the Lady Bulldogs softball team played the faculty/staff in an exhibition game. On a beautiful, sunny day perfectly suited to watching America’s pastime, much trash talking – primarily from the faculty and staff – was not an unexpected part of the festivities, mostly in the form of threatening poor grades should the young women prevail in the game. Being good sports, while remaining cognizant of their grade point averages, the Lady Bulldogs considerately allowed the older folks to win. Never mind that the faculty/staff fielded something like 51 outfielders (as a concession to their lessening mobility – primarily due to old age and gravity).

Most impressive were the two new coaches of the Lady Bulldogs softball team. Head coach Amanda Fefel and her amazing assistant coach, Shanna Smith, wowed both players and faculty/staff. Coach Fefel once pitched in Division I college, and it showed. She threw serious heat pretty much the entire game, schooling her new players on the principal that it’s about pitching, pitching, and more pitching. Not to be outdone, her assistant, Coach Smith, hit with power and average, driving a rope over the left-center field fence, staking the faculty/staff to a lead which they never relinquished. I’m not sure where Coach Smith played, but she moves with the grace and speed of a world-class athlete. Coach Smith owned the left side of the infield while playing short-stop, and she can still flat out play!

Even Tex Buckhaults, Clarendon College’s stylish vice president (attired in his white African safari hat) showed glimpses of glories long past, snagging – cat-like, a hot liner to third base, reminiscent of the great Brooks Robinson. Alas, being a bit long of tooth, his throw to second base fluttered wounded-duck-like into right field. However, little damage resulted from his errant throw and the faculty/staff easily outdistanced their young opponents, once again proving the old adage that “old age and treachery always beats youth and skill.” It helps, too, to have a couple of ringers like coaches Fefel and Smith.

Everyone seems to have had a great time, and the stands were surprisingly full of frisky college students, along with the spouses and significant others of the faculty/staff, including Ranger – the beautiful young boxer that belongs to Coach and Ms. Devin McIntosh.

This year, as in years past, Clarendon College will add much that is good and precious to our lives. It’s my hope that we recognize the incredible value they add to our community, and do all we can to support Clarendon College. It truly is the Athens of the Panhandle. We need to count our blessings that rain down from the Hill.

 

The Clarendon ISD Board of Trustees adopted a $5.3 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year during a meeting last Tuesday, August 26.

The budget consists of two parts, $5.1 million for the school’s general fund and $230,555 for the district’s food services.

Superintendent Monty Hysinger said the fiscal year 2015 budget is based on an average daily attendance of 429 students; and overall reflects a balanced budget about 4.8 percent higher than last year’s.

CISD is maintaining its taxrate at the state limit of $1.17 per $100 valuation as approved by voters last year, but higher property values will bring more revenue to the school.

“We’ve seen property values up about $7 million mostly due to utilities,” Superintendent Monty Hysinger said. “The value of the average single family residence is actually down slightly.”

One of the highlights of this year’s budget is that it allows for step raises for teachers, and teachers whose salaries were frozen last year will also get an additional step raise to get them back on track.

“That’s important when youre competing with districts that can pay more than we can,” Hysinger said.

The new budget does not include any major facility upgrades other than modernizing the school’s wireless network.

The school is finishing construction of a covered shed to protect buses, and Hysinger said the field house needs to be re-roofed. But for the most part the school’s physical plant is in good condition.

“Our facilities are really in good shape,” he said.

To support the fiscal year 2015 budget, local taxes are expected to generate about $1.67 million, and the remaining funds will come from state appropriations and other sources.

It may be a bit early for some to start thinking about Christmas, but that doesn’t mean one local committee isn’t getting into the holiday spirit.

The Donley County Courthouse Lighting Committee is currently in the design stages of lighting up the courthouse square and has been meeting monthly to make plans and raise funds.

The inaugural lighting ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, November 29, and the volunteer committee, headed by Justice of the Peace Denise Bertrand, hopes to make the annual holiday lighting of the courthouse the official start of the Christmas season in Donley County.

This historic building will be enhanced by new lighting and scenes to inspire the adults and awe the children. Current plans include lighting the large trees on the east side of the square, a wreath in the courthouse’s round window, and other lighting features with plans to expand each year until the entire lawn is decorated on all sides of the square. In addition, the VFW Ladies Auxiliary Post 7782 has agreed to decorate the Liberty Tree located east of the annex.

“We hope the courthouse lawn will be the center of attention for our county residents and a reason for visitors to detour off of highway 287,” Bertrand said.

To date $11,136.92 has been raised, which includes a $6,000 contribution from the Clarendon EDC.

The committee is currently selling collector ornaments featuring a snowy scene of the courthouse, and only a limited number are available – so get yours before they’re gone. The ornaments will be available at the Saints’ Roost Museum’s Chuckwagon Cook-off on September 27 or by contacting any member of the committee.

If you’d like to help light up our courthouse this holiday season, donations may be mailed to Courthouse Lighting Committee, P.O. Box 825, Clarendon, TX 79226 or given to Derlene Graham at Pilgrim Bank or Jacob Fangman at Herring Bank.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the courthouse. Anyone interested in assisting is encouraged to attend.

Hedley ISD will hold its annual Title I Parent-Teacher meeting on September 9, 2014, at 5:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria. All parents and interested members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend.

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

“Jesus loves you.” It’s a simple message, but it’s one that is best delivered with actions rather than words.

Christ’s Kids Ministry brings that message to dozens of children weekly, and over the summer months it fed those kids’ bodies as well as their souls, delivering 135 sack lunches five days a week… an estimated 7,500 meals since May.

“We just want to be a blessing and show kids that Jesus loves them,” says Steve Carter, who heads up the ministry with his wife, Janet.

As they deliver meals across Clarendon and in Lelia Lake without regard to any income guidelines, Steve, Janet, and their helpers repeat that simple message, “Jesus loves you,” and now kids come running to their delivery vans and give them the message first.

Some kids are economically disadvantaged. Some are home alone during the day. Christ’s Kids doesn’t look at those circumstances. All that matters is that a kid needs food, and the mission is to serve.

Every meal includes fruit, a drink, a cookie, and something hot such as a burger or corn dog. The Carters say they see God working every day in the ministry, whether it’s in the form of donations from across the community or in always having the right amount of food to go around. Some days there is food left over, other days supply equals demand, and then other days are more special.

“We’ve had days when we packed exactly 135 meals but had 140 kids to serve… and the meals are there,” Janet Carter said. “It’s a God thing.”

They also see the devotion of the local community, which has come through with all the money over the years to the extent that Christ’s Kids has never sought state or federal assistance.

At the start of each summer, the ministry puts a notice in the paper and sends information home with students in the school. The sack lunch program is open to kids 15 years old and younger.

“We kind of figure at 16 you’re old enough to get some kind of job, and we also just have to have a cutoff point somewhere,” Carter said.

The ministry buys much of its food from the High Plains Food Bank and also has a food pantry to help people when needed.

The ministry itself began as “Ted’s Kids” 14 years ago by Ted Shaller and David Dickinson and became known as Christ’s Kids nine years ago. The summer lunch program began five years ago.

The ministry was housed in three different churches and for a time in the Clarendon Lions Hall before the former Panhandle Community Services building became available on Kearney Street. Then about a year ago, the PCS building came up for sale.

“The PCS board offered it to us, but we said there was no way we could afford it, and they told us to just make an offer,” Steve Carter recalls. “We prayed about it and came up with the figure of $3 per square foot as all we could come up with. We offered $15,000, and they took it.”

Christ’s Kids ministers to about 40 kids on Wednesdays and Sundays, and owning their building has allowed them to make the facility available to any Christian-based group.

Carter started with Christ’s Kids nine years ago. In July, he retired from his job and now leads the ministry full time, which has allowed its mission to be expanded to include an adult Bible study to reach the kids’ parents.

The summer sack lunch program wrapped up last Friday with kids going back to school this week. Now Christ’s Kids shifts gears and works with the Snack Pack 4 Kids program to send extra food home with students that are identified by the school.

Support for the program cuts across all denominations, and the ministry has ten regular adult volunteers and is often joined by others seeking to serve, including missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Carter doesn’t see the need for the mission diminishing and says it’s hard to stop something once it’s started.

“We’re there every day,” he said. “There are a lot of hurting people. The Lord led us to kids a long time ago, and we’ll do it as long as we can.”

The Saints’ Roost Museum invites the public to view “The Cynthia Ann & Quanah Parker Exhibit: A Woman of Two Worlds and A Man in Two Worlds,” a traveling exhibit of rarely seen photos.

The photo exhibit, on loan from the Texas Lakes Trail Region, will be on display through September at the Museum, which is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Much can be learned from the dramatic story of these two courageous individuals. In 1836, a Comanche raiding party took Cynthia Ann from her family. Over the following years, she became a wife to a Comanche chief and mother to their children, including Quanah. After Cynthia Ann was taken back by Texas Rangers, Quanah became one of the most important Comanche leaders both in war and peace.

The photo exhibit tells this story of the lives of these two persons caught between two different worlds. The Lakes Trail Region views this traveling exhibit as a way to educate visitors about their lives.

The presentation of the Cynthia Ann and Quanah Parker photo exhibit at the Saints’ Roost Museum was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

An Amarillo man was sentenced to ten years in prison last Thursday, August 21, for his role in attacking a local woman last year.

Tyler Lee Smith entered a plea of guilty when the 100th Judicial District Court met in Childress. He was convicted for the second degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 10 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“This defendant used a knife during an attack on his own girlfriend causing her serious injuries which almost took her life,” said District Attorney Luke Inman. “Due to the use of the knife in this offense, he will have to complete at least five years of his sentence before becoming parole eligible.”

The crime occurred in the early hours of November 3, 2013, when 17-year-old Shantel Harris was severely beaten and stabbed in the neck in Clarendon’s North Ward park while walking home from a birthday party. She later identified her attackers as Smith and Devonte Hardaway of Clarendon.

“Domestic violence, like this case, is taken seriously by law enforcement in the 100th Judicial District and this office,” said Inman. “We recently hosted a domestic violence seminar for law enforcement in Wellington that emphasized going forward with domestic assault cases, even when you don’t have the support of the victim like we lacked in this case.”

Smith, age 20 of Amarillo, was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on May 14, 2014. The trial had been scheduled for August 26 in Donley County.

Inman prosecuted the case for the State of Texas with the Honorable Judge Stuart Messer presiding.

Pursuant to the plea Smith is required to pay $398 in court costs and a $2,000 fine.

Hardaway accepted a plea agreement earlier this year.